So I figure that there is a set of things one shouldn't do when they first start playing online risk, and this is a great place to flush them out for new players. 

List the things you do as a noob that cost you dearly:

Things like-

1. Learn to stop attacking: no point in losing all your units, or winning a battle and being weak. 

2. Stop wasting units on neutrals without purpose

3. Don't try to take a continent unless you are pretty sure you can hold it.  Otherwise you just make yourself a target.

4. No revenge attacks. Don't take things personally, keep a clear head and try to make the best rational decision each turn.

5. Think more than just 1 turn ahead - Ask yourself what you want the board to look like in a few turns, and only make attacks that will move you towards that goal, or will stop your opponents from inhibiting that goal.

6. Recognize that the first card bonus seldom gives an advantage.  If you drain yourself down to 1's everywhere just because you're trying to take a card, you're just making it that much easier for your opponent to take THEIR continent (where they used to have take out your 3, now they only have to take out your 1)

And an extension to Ratsy's rule #1 above:  Know the dice odds of your attacks.  There's a HUGE loss of advantage when you're not attacking 3v2 or 3v1.  Whatever reason that you think justifies you attacking 2v3 doesn't actually exist (or is strongly outweighed by a counter-reasoning to call it quits).

BorisTheFrugal wrote:

And an extension to Ratsy's rule #1 above:  Know the dice odds of your attacks.  There's a HUGE loss of advantage when you're not attacking 3v2 or 3v1.  Whatever reason that you think justifies you attacking 2v3 doesn't actually exist (or is strongly outweighed by a counter-reasoning to call it quits).

For the lazy ones: http://prestopnik.com/wargear/

An advantage in a 3-way battle usually disappears. The same advantage in a 4-way battle has more promise. 

That might be more of an intermediate level thing :)

7.  Every turn, ask these related questions: Who can I eliminate? Who can eliminate me? Who can eliminate someone else?

In many multiple player games everything builds up to a turn of multi-player elimination that puts the 'killer' in the lead for good.  So first, you have to recognize when you can be the killer, next when you might be the victim (so you can do something to prevent it), or when you wont be the killer or victom, but could be a 'blocker' to prevent another player from being eliminated.

poq wrote:

4. No revenge attacks. Don't take things personally, keep a clear head and try to make the best rational decision each turn.

4b.  ..unless you're REALLY REALLY mad and if you don't, you'll probably go out and kill someone in RL.  Remember, it's only a game ..the perfect place to unload your frustrations ..even if they are a bit mis-guided.

8. In turn-based games, generally focus on the player sitting behind you. Usually the player who's turn it was before you has a strong position come your turn. Relatively speaking it is not as strong as it looks, though, because all players behind you can still take their shots at him. The one directly behind you on the other hand is your responsibility - there is no one else to keep him in check but you. Additionally by leaving the player before you strong, you are forcing your enemies' moves, exerting control over the board - a bit like threatening your opponents king or queen in chess in order to make their moves more predictable.

Re 4. If the player in front of you keeps attacking you consistently, don't get mad at him. He is just doing his job;-)

9. (Which is related to7) Keep an eye on cards.  Who has them and who doesn't and the card scale.  For many boards continent bonuses become much less important than the card race as the game goes on.  Eliminating people to gain their cards then becomes more important and protecting your borders less so.  

Sort of a converse to that though, is early in the game wasting your units to gain a card can just leave you in a weak position - and since the value of cards is low, not worth it.

10. On Wargear there are many variation to the rules which considerably change the game.  Fog is the most obvious, but boards with card capture off exist, as do ones with significant elimination bonuses.  Reserves, Capitals, factories, Simulgear, return to placement on/off, return to fortify on/off, fortify to connected, abandonment - each of those and how they interact with each other produces the need for different strategies.  For rookies the advice is to be aware that these exist and to tread lightly until you get the hang of each one.  And then there are boards which take these rules to produce games that are not Risk in the slightest.  

12-Ball Solution

1^st Weighting:  5 6 7 8  v  9 10 11 12

If Equal – you have two more weightings to solve for 1 2 3 4 (I.e – the 4 ball problem I described earlier).

Let’s assume they are unequal and we find that 5 6 7 8 is light OR 9 10 11 12 is heavy..

2^nd Weighting:  5 6 9 v 10 7 4

If Equal, then you know it’s either 8-light, 11-heavy, or 12-heavy. Weigh 11 v 12 to solve.

If 5 6 9 is heavy, then it’s either 9-heavy or 7-light.  Weigh one of them against 2 to solve.

If 5 6 9 is light, then it’s either 5-light, 6-light, or 10-heavy. Weigh 5 v 6 to solve.

M57 wrote:

12-Ball Solution

1^st Weighting:  5 6 7 8  v  9 10 11 12

If Equal – you have two more weightings to solve for 1 2 3 4 (I.e – the 4 ball problem I described earlier).

Let’s assume they are unequal and we find that 5 6 7 8 is light OR 9 10 11 12 is heavy..

2^nd Weighting:  5 6 9 v 10 7 4

If Equal, then you know it’s either 8-light, 11-heavy, or 12-heavy. Weigh 11 v 12 to solve.

If 5 6 9 is heavy, then it’s either 9-heavy or 7-light.  Weigh one of them against 2 to solve.

If 5 6 9 is light, then it’s either 5-light, 6-light, or 10-heavy. Weigh 5 v 6 to solve.

M - I think you posted this in the wrong thread.

BorisTheFrugal wrote:

M57 wrote:

12-Ball Solution...

M - I think you posted this in the wrong thread.

But it could be a rookie mistake, and thus in the right thread  ;)

sigh

Amidon37 wrote:

9. (Which is related to7) Keep an eye on cards.  Who has them and who doesn't and the card scale.

This can be tough in games with fog.  Sure, you can count the first few rounds and see the current card bonus value and make a few assumptions based on what you see happening on the board, but it doesn't take too long before, it's a complete guess.

Strangely enough, I seem to have good luck when I'm looking at a board that I'm considering running and try to guess how many cards players have.  One rule that seems to work for me is, especially in late mid-rounds when the card count can have decisive effect, the weaker the opponent, the more likely they've got a handful of cards (because they haven't cashed in a while).

1.b) Keep your finger off those 1 and 2 buttons.  Only attack with three units unless it is imperative for you to capture the territory. 

M57 wrote:

poq wrote:

4. No revenge attacks. Don't take things personally, keep a clear head and try to make the best rational decision each turn.

4b.  ..unless you're REALLY REALLY mad and if you don't, you'll probably go out and kill someone in RL.  Remember, it's only a game ..the perfect place to unload your frustrations ..even if they are a bit mis-guided.

4c OR, unless you are not actually mad, but trying to make a point or hoping to modify their behavior in that map or future ones. 

For instance, some people like to go for someone's throat early. If you respond with overwhelming force, they are more likely back off you or pick on someone else in the future.

Or, for instance you are in an alliance (formal or informal) against a stronger foe and the other person is clearly using you as a meat shield while they hang back or even nibble your borders, round after round.

If you send (non-inflammatory / positively framed) messages at the same time questioning their actions or explaining your response it will usually be even more effective. I've had more than a few bloodbaths turn into truces and alliances once the air had been cleared.

poq wrote:

BorisTheFrugal wrote:

And an extension to Ratsy's rule #1 above:  Know the dice odds of your attacks.  There's a HUGE loss of advantage when you're not attacking 3v2 or 3v1.  Whatever reason that you think justifies you attacking 2v3 doesn't actually exist (or is strongly outweighed by a counter-reasoning to call it quits).

For the lazy ones: http://prestopnik.com/wargear/

Wow, people really do a slow simulation instead of an exact calculation?

I wrote myself a calculator (at the moment only for d6 dice) that lets me specify the number of troops I attack with, and the path of defenders that I want to be able to go through.  It computes my exact odds (well, exact to 8 or so decimal places) of successfully going through the entire chain.

I wonder whether it would be worthwhile to port that to JavaScript and make it a bit more flexible...

The biggest thing that I wish I knew when I started is the value of all of the tabs other than "Play".

First stop, the Board Tab.  Before you go to play your next turn, take a look at this.  Just shows you the board at the start, right?  Nope!

Find "Description" and click on it.  This often gives you a lot of information about the goal of the board, and how to play it.  (Really, designers put a surprising amount of thought into it, the least you can do is read the section.)  Following this advice is often helpful.

Next stop, inside of Board is "Rules".   What can you learn here?  Two key items are whether you can return to placement from attack, or return to attack from fortify.  Those have big gameplay effects on a board if they are on and you know about it!  Also if you expand Bonuses, Limits and Dice you'll find the Elimination Bonus.  When the elimination bonus + a risk is worth more than what it is likely to cost you to eliminate a player, it pays to eliminate them.  Occasionally you can get a domino effect where the first elimination gives you the troops to do the next, and the next thing you know you've generated a huge army.

Next stop, back at the top, History.  When you walk through History you can often learn a lot about what has happened, who is attacking you, how many troops someone might have sent in a direction you can't see directly, etc.  It is worth taking a look.

There is a lot of information buried in the interface.  Spend time exploring it.  Try to use it in your planning, and see how much your play improves..

btilly wrote:

The biggest thing that I wish I knew when I started is the value of all of the tabs other than "Play".

First stop, the Board Tab.  Before you go to play your next turn, take a look at this.  Just shows you the board at the start, right?  Nope!

Find "Description" and click on it.  This often gives you a lot of information about the goal of the board, and how to play it.  (Really, designers put a surprising amount of thought into it, the least you can do is read the section.)  Following this advice is often helpful.

Next stop, inside of Board is "Rules".   What can you learn here?  Two key items are whether you can return to placement from attack, or return to attack from fortify.  Those have big gameplay effects on a board if they are on and you know about it!  Also if you expand Bonuses, Limits and Dice you'll find the Elimination Bonus.  When the elimination bonus + a risk is worth more than what it is likely to cost you to eliminate a player, it pays to eliminate them.  Occasionally you can get a domino effect where the first elimination gives you the troops to do the next, and the next thing you know you've generated a huge army.

Next stop, back at the top, History.  When you walk through History you can often learn a lot about what has happened, who is attacking you, how many troops someone might have sent in a direction you can't see directly, etc.  It is worth taking a look.

There is a lot of information buried in the interface.  Spend time exploring it.  Try to use it in your planning, and see how much your play improves..

Amusing case in point of why you have to read board descriptions.

I looked at a board today whose description started off, "READ THIS OR YOU WILL LOSE!!!"

Go to http://www.wargear.net/boards/view/gods+of+the+Titans and read the description.  I do not think that summary inaccurate.  (Of course I will probably lose as I am just trying to figure out the board.)